The Metropolitan King County Council Monday took a step toward establishing “neighborhood farms” with its unanimous adoption of legislation calling for the creation and management of community gardens on county-owned land throughout King County.

“I’m excited about this,” said council Vice Chair Jane Hague, the prime sponsor of the motion and who represents part of Bellevue on the council. “Community gardens offer a great opportunity to promote public health. They foster a viable link between environmental awareness and community viability. We have several in District 6 and they’ve proven to be very popular.”

A 2008 study found that the county owns more than 2,000 parcels of land in urban areas. Of these unused parcels as many as 84 may be fit for siting community gardens.

The adopted legislation calls for the development of a plan to create and manage the gardens. The plan would be developed in conjunction with an advisory council made up of representatives from Public Health-Seattle & King County, Washington State University, King County Agricultural Commission, food banks, gardening organizations, schools and homeless shelters.

The legislation mandates the County Executive present a garden implementation plan to the council by November of this year.